Chinese and American Farming Friends:
Wendell Berry and Yan Shi
By Jay McDaniel and Zhihe Wang
Today, some people, mostly in governmental circles, believe that China and the US are bound to be in conflict geopolitically, militarily, and economically. They see the relationship between the two nations as a competition, with the success of one implying the failure of the other.
But beneath the surface of political tensions there is a human and humane side to relations between China and the US: one that most of us at this event well know.
Cultural exchanges have been occurring for centuries, which have given rise to deep and lasting friendships. And there is much that people have learned on both sides of the ocean. Many Americans, for example, are inspired by multiple dimensions of Chinese culture: Chinese art; traditional Chinese medicine; Daoism and Confucianism; Chinese Buddhism; Chinese folk customs, the sounds and script of Chinese language; and, of course, the many traditions of Chinese cuisine. There is something beautiful about Chinese culture, and Americans know it. Such inspiration can be found on the Chinese side. Many Chinese may understandably fear American impulses to dominate the world, now obviously self-destructive, but they like and admire many aspects of American culture. The friendships and admiration go both ways.
Another remarkable example of this human and humane interaction, mostly unknown to people in China and the US, is how Western farmers, in search of alternatives to the worst aspects of industrial agriculture, learned from traditional Chinese farming, thus initiating what we call the organic farming movement; and how this movement in the West now inspires Chinese. Here we have mutual inspiration on the same topic farming; and, in some ways, the stakes couldn’t be larger.
Wendell Berry, who is one of the most influential pioneers of the organic movement, tells the story of this inspiration in his correspondence with Yan Shi, who founded the first CSA (community supported agriculture) farm in China, of which there are now thousands. Chinese organic farmers are influenced by Berry, and Berry, through his forebears, is influenced by China. I will let them tell the story:
*****************
Letter to Wendell Berry, from Yan Shi,
Yan Shi is Winner of the John Cobb Common Good Award, 2023
Mr. and Mrs. Wendell and Tanya Berry
Box 1, Lanes Landing Farm
Port Royal, Kentucky 40058
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Berry:
I hope my letter finds you all well.
I am an organic farmer in China and I am a big fan of your work. To organic farmers in China you are a legend. You have my sincere admiration for your tireless dedication to promote organic farming for half a century. Inspired by your story, I have been working on China’s CSA movement more than 10 years after I got my Ph.D. from Renmin University. I founded China's first CSA farm, fostering a healthier and more sustainable connection between farmers and consumers nationwide. Now thousands of similar CSA farms across China are established.
You are the hero of all our Chinese new farmers. What you have done makes us deeply understand the beauty of the following poem titled “The Plow's Head” from the Book of Songs 3,000 years ago.
《良耜》
畟畟良耜，俶载南亩。播厥百谷，实函斯活。
或来瞻女，载筐及莒，其饟伊黍。其笠伊纠，其镈斯赵，以薅荼蓼。
荼蓼朽止，黍稷茂止。获之挃挃，积之栗栗。其崇如墉，其比如栉。
以开百室，百室盈止，妇子宁止。杀时犉牡，有捄其角。以似以续，续古之人。
The Plow's Head
The plow's head cuts deep into the earth, sharp and keen,
First to the south, fields to be gleaned.
Seeds of a hundred grains planted in the field,
Every grain nurturing rich yield.
Some come bearing meals to share,
Carrying square and round baskets with care,
Filled with millet, a feast so fair.
Wearing straw hats woven by hand,
Holding hoes to till the land,
Clearing weeds from every strand.
Wild grass decays, enriching the soil,
Crops grow thick with vigor and toil.
Harvesters swing their sickles in unison,
Grain piled high as if a fortress risen.
See the mounds high like city walls,
Rows on each side, akin to combed halls,
Barn doors open, a hundredfold.
Every granary brims with grain untold,
Women and children with spirits bright.
Slaughtering the ox with black lips, head bowed,
Curved horns, a beauty, proud.
Continuing rituals, the old ways entwine,
Inheriting customs, a legacy divine.
Now we are preparing our 15th China’s CSA Congress to be held from March 16-18. 1000 young new farmers will participate in it. It would be a great honor to us all if you would write a letter to this Congress, in which you can share your philosophy on land and food, and your encouragement for Chinese young farmers. Your letter will greatly boost Chinese young farmers’ morale and make a big difference to the success of our conference.
Your consideration is highly appreciated.
With warmest regards,
Sincerely yours,
Yan Shi, Ph.D
Founder and Director of Shared Harvest Organic Farm
The co-Chair of International CSA Network
******************
Here is Wendell Berry's response:
Wendell and Tanya Berry
P.O. Box 1
Lanes Landing Farm Port Royal, Kentucky 40058
February 21, 2024
Dear Yan Shi,
It is remarkable that you, a leader in the effort for ecological farming in China, should ask us for encouragement. Your request is remarkable because our education in healthy ways of growing food originated partly in China. Let me explain.
More than a century ago, F. H. King, professor of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, became convinced of the wastefulness of farming in western Europe and the eastern United States. His search for remedies led him, in 1909, to China, Korea, and Japan. He spent nine months studying in detail, with great care and respect, the ways of the small farmers of those countries—ways by which they had sustained their land and themselves for thousands of years. His discovery was that those people "have held all wastes, both urban and rural, sacred to agriculture, applying them to their fields."
His book, "Farmers of Forty Centuries," published in 1911, probably should be considered the fundamental work of what came to be called "organic agriculture." A copy of that book came into our hands in 1968, when we were trying to learn to live responsibly on and from our small farm in our home community. And so we came under the influence of the small farmers whose ways had been so instructive to F. H. King. We were also instructed by the work of Sir Albert Howard, who confirmed King's findings: Those ancient ways of farming had lasted so long because they had strictly obeyed Nature's first and summary law: She wastes nothing.
We belonged inescapably to the modern world, which is extravagantly wasteful, but in our use of our own very marginal farm, we tried to follow the ways commended by King and Howard. To the extent that we were able to do so, our land was healthy. We kept our slopes well-covered with grass. Those pastures steadily improved. Their carrying capacity increased. The soil of our vegetable garden, fed with the waste from our barns, became wonderfully productive and resistant to drought. We used no chemical fertilizers and no herbicides or insecticides. Our experience was and still is encouraging to us—and we hope it will encourage you, Yan Shi—because it demonstrated the possibility that the use of the land by humans does not need to be destructive. We were encouraged, that is to say, by our knowledge that healthy, ecological, or organic methods worked well on a small scale. We are encouraged also by the knowledge that such methods work well on a very large scale, but that encouragement comes to us from your country, not ours.
We wish you well.
Wendell and Tanya Berry
*****************
For those of us committed to the emergence of Ecological Civilizations, this correspondence is a wake up call and a seed of hope. It awakens us to the fact, as Berry and Yan Shi jointly recognize, that an ecological civilization depends on a healthy, post-industrial agriculture that includes within it wisdom from traditional farming methods, in this case Chinese methods. And it offers a seed of hope that, beyond any talk of competition and rivalry, there can be mutual appreciation, humility on both sides, and a commitment to working together.